Thanks for the review! Hopefully the TruePower 2.0 will be reviews shortly too. One quick note however - you just need to alter the links to the sounds files by appending '.mp3' to the end

X

Thanks for the review. I've been anxious to see it, but I must admit I am a little disappointed it's far noisier than I expected. Maybe the TruePower is better? Perhaps...

Nice review - thanks. I was really enjoying this review as a sp 2.0 500w owner, especially the 80mm vs 120mm design strategies, marketing factors, etc., until I looked at the noise levels. But even the phantom 500w suffers in a typical computer setup with a 37 dba reading at 500w. An 80mm fan does not play the "evacuate the heat" role very well. A single or dual 80mm fan psu in a ducted compartment is a different story however.

The intake fan in my sp is an xinruilian (xfan) rdm8015s. Is the fan in your review sample really 80x20mm? I'm just wondering if antec has made a revision since I purchased mine. - FG

Is there a single 80mm or dual 80mm psu that you would expect to do well in your tests? Super silencers are being phased out.

Though I have no interest to buy this psu (I'm a seasonic guy), I was a bit suprised and dissapointed nonetheless that I did not find the usual picture showing the length of the cables next to the ruler like most other psu reviews at SPCR. As it is repeatedly mentioned the cables are short in this review, I think it is that much more important to include the picture so we have a visual reference as to just how short the cables are, which could aid other potential buyers in the decision making process without having to consult these forums.

While I am nitpicking here, I also notice the link on the main page is for the entire paragraph, which I do not think is the intention? It is also this way on the coolmax posted on July 11th. Usually only one sentence or so is linked...and this feels inconsistent. Not like this is a big deal, more room to click!

I do like the idea of the INTAKE fan running and not the exhaust. This makes the fan deeper into the case and as mentioned in the review, places the source of the noise further away from directly exiting the case. I wish there were a single fan 80mm psu with the fan on the inside that also boasted APFC and high efficiency at low power levels. I've never really gotten into the 120mm psu craze as the case I have now and the new P180 I have on the way both isolate the psu fairly well making the 120mm fan oddly placed and restricted. Also, the 80mm psu's have bigger heatsinks in comparison to their 120mm counterparts, making a passive configuration more effective in the P180 with just the 120mm fan in the tunnel running. I have thoughts of trying to unplug the seasonic super silencer fan once placed in the P180 and run passive with just airflow from a 120mm yate loon in the bottom chaimber. I really like that the bottom chaimber has the 120mm fan in the middle, further away from the exiting areas of the case.

Just my 0.02

-Ken

I'm getting different intake/exhaust temp ranges for my sp 2.0 500w. My intake is always at room temp. - at this reading 26.2 C and the exhaust is 38.9 C (1 instance of cpuburn) as measured with a fluke 179 dmm w/temp. probe. This could be as a result of larger components or detachable cable connections that impede airflow. The exhaust fan starts and runs at low speed with one instance of cpuburn, but cannot be heard over the nexus 120 case fan at 700rpm. - FG

Under light use the rear fan is not on.

Nice review - and just in time for my upcomming build (so now I'm undecided again ).

One question though - is there any reason to think that the 350 version will be quieter (I should be operating closer to max effeciency and I really do not need more power than that)?

But anyway I'll reconsider swapping from an s12 to this since the area I'll be using is probably around 150W max (3000 A64 + 6600 graphics), and since the price is a lot lower.

I wouldn't recommend it for use in a typical case where the psu is called upon to evacuate heat from the cpu and other hot components. The 80mm fans do not move enough air at low speeds and ramp up drawing more heat into the psu. Efficiency is not going to change this fundamental problem. - FG

Hmm - perhaps we can convince the lab guys to do a test and find out if a 12 cm fan in a powersupply actually moves more air than a 8 cm push/pull. The review hints that this may not be the case, but hard evidence would be nice.

Anyway the case will have a 12 cm fan for exhausting hot air in addition to whatever the PSU exhausts. And finally the design of the Antec will make it fairly simple to duct fresh air to the PSU - also in a conventional case.

I don't have anything too terribly technical to share, but I can at least confirm that this power supply is not suitable for use in the P180 case if you have a motherboard with the 24 pin connector at or near the top right corner of the board.

I mounted my Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra in the P180 last night and was dismayed to find the SmartPower's cable about 2 or 3 inches too short to reach. Looking for a resolution now...I did call Antec and let them know, and they offered to send me a 6" 24 pin to 24 pin extension.

The SmartPower 2.0 (450 Watts) comes standard with the Sonata II.
The box in wich my Sonata II came stated "Ultra-quiet" and "Virtually silent power".
Maybe the SmartPower 2.0 is relatively quiet when tested in a lab environment.
Mounted my Sonata it "resonates" the case. With the door closed the noise is not acceptable.
I just posted a problemreport to Antec.

The options I am considering are:
Mounting the PSU Noise Killer kit. (Isolates metal to metalcontacts)
Modding the PSU, replacing the internal PSU fan.
Replacing the PSU with a more silent one (Seasonic?)

How do other Sonata II owners like their PSU?

Make sure you don't have the RPM monitoring cable plugged in. As mentioned in the review, there is a known problem with the fan controller that causes the fan to run at full speed when the RPM cable is plugged into the motherboard.

Thanks Devonavar for pointing out. But thats not the problem, it is not connected.

Oops, didn't read your post carefully enough.

It looks like you already have a good handle on what you need to do to solve the problem. I think the solution you choose will be dictated by how much you want to spend and how comfortable you feel working inside a PSU.

I do have one suggestion to add, however: Often the resonance issue can be addressed by damping the metal panels of the case itself. You may want to look into doing an Acoustipack treatment for the Sonata. If you haven't already, you should also make sure that the source of the resonance is the PSU. Hard drives are another common source of resonance...

S,

Having the rpm of the psu fan really helps to find out what's going on. However that's not possible since the rpm sensor cable doesn't work. If you decide to replace the psu fan, you should consider replacing the intake fan with a 25mm fan mounted on the outside that will have more airflow at the same speed. The exhaust fan when not moving is probably not helping things. You could just take it out as long as your intake fan is upgraded. Also if the case heat near the intake fan is relatively warm or hot, the 80mm fans may not be able to do a good enough job. I have an sp 2.0 500w version and as long as the intake temps are low it doesn't seem to make very much noise. I'm just assuming that the fans are at a high enough speed to vibrate the case panels. Hopefully solution 1 will work. - FG

Good idea!
I red the review a second time and noticed the intake fan is only 20mm. The review is, I forgtot to state before, very good. I would say close to Academic quality!

I found some recommendations on quiet 80mm fans on this super site as well
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html

If I´ll go for the fan replacement I shall report back on that.

Thanks so far.

I just got the 500 W version of this PSU. It seems to be designed for the P180, in the sense that with the 120mm lower chamber fan blowing on it set on "low," it is always very quiet in my system. Not totally silent, but very respectable.

The flipside of that is, I wouldn't recommend it for a case that isn't set up like the P180, for the reasons noted in the review (i.e. 2x80mm fans = more noise than 1x120mm fan).

The 500 W SmartPower 2.0 has the modular cable system from the NeoPower, and almost all the cables come sleeved, which IS very handy for cable managment in the P180, but as noted earlier the cables are kind of short... I could reach everything on my Asus A8V Deluxe 2.0 mobo, but just barely.

I just installed the PSU gasket from the NoiseKiller kit from Antec.
It actually superseeded my expectations, It took care of my noise problem!
My Sonata II is acceptable quiet now. I could live with this light hum my Setup makes.
Which by the way is:
ASUS A8N SLI Premium
AMD 3000+ Venice core
Zallman 7000 CuAl CPU cooler
Gigabyte 6600GT Passive (NX66T128VP)
Samsung 250Gb SP2504C
NEC ND-3540
Twinmos DDR400 mem 2 x 512Mb

But I´m afraid I got the 'Silencer virus' thats lingering in these forums. A 80mm Pabst fan is already ordered...

I'm thinking of going push/pull in my case (SLK3700BQE). My S12-430 is dumping too much heat back into the case. How's the SPII in that regard? Does it heat up the top of your case much or does it do a good job evacuating the heat?

Thanks,
BoB

The SPII does heat up the top of the cover a bit. If it does a better Job in removing it´s own generated heat than your Seasonic(?) I cannot judge.

Maybe a theoretical approach can shed some light on that:
Whats the efficiency of your PSU compared to the reviewed SPII?
Lower effiency is more dissipated heat.
But then you should compare the fans capabilities (ccm/min) alsoo.

Maybe the Gurus around have a more direct answer?

Look at the SPCR review test data for the two PSUs, specifically at the PSU intake temp at specific load levels. Adjust for the difference in ambient -- normalized to 21C...

Seasonic S12-430 -
90W: 27C, 150W: 32C, 200W: 35C, 250W: 36C

Antec SmartPower 2-450:
90W: 26C, 150W: 29C, 200W: 32C, 250W: 35C

You can assume that the total amount of heat fed into the case from the loaded resistors is the same at each power level (close enough to the same, anyway). Therefore, the difference in intake temp (once you eliminate the ambient temp difference) is caused by how effectively the heat is evacuated by the PSUs.

The flip side of the equation is the noise price (dBA@m)...

Seasonic S12-430 -
90W: 20dba, 150W: 22dba, 200W: 25dba, 250W: 29dba

Antec SmartPower 2-450:
90W: 21dba, 150W: 27dba, 200W: 32dba, 250W: 37dba

The above comparison is a bit unfair; the ambient temp was 4C warmer during the Antec testing, so it could have affected the rate aty which the fan sped up. Regardless, once you pass the min/idle load, the noise difference is quite audible -- in use as well as in the test.

That's information on a silver plate!

Outstanding, Mike.

Hell yeah! MikeC 'da man!

Pity that there wasn't a chance to test it in a P180.

i don't know a thing about the Watt thing and dbA, but what i do know is my SP-450 dual-fans, at their fastest, go at around 1205-1210rpm, i don't know the Watt or dbA amount of that though.

when i open my comp, when it wasn't working for the night, and checking out the speed of the fan(s), it's around 900rpm, and slowly speeding up until the exhaust fan starts.

normally the dual-fans goes around 1180-1188rpm, so i guess there's not a lot of difference between 1180 and 1210rpm temperatures, Watts and dbA

Hello All,
I'm new to this silent pc business so if you bare with me I'd be grateful.
My PC is made up of an Antec TX640B-UK case with SP-400PGB PSU.
The case has one 120mm fan running at the rear.
I have a AMD 3700 with CM Hyper 48 heat sink running on it.
The PC is relatively quite compared to any other PC I've owned but I still think it's too loud.
By stopping the fan on the heatsink or the one at the rear of the case with my finger while the PC is running. I've narrowed down the offending party.
The PSU. I assume the SmartPower 400PGB is similar in a lot of ways to the SP450PGB. By reading the review and posts above, it looks like the best solution would be to replace the intake fan with a quieter one.

So here's my question:
Can I replace the existing 80 x 20mm intake fan with a 80 x 25mm ultra quite fan (does it fit/does it impede airflow). Has anyone tried this and what are the pitfalls.
Ohh ye the temp of the cpu never rises above 30c at the moment.
Cheers P

Are you sure it's a 20mm intake fan. I believe that was an error in the spcr review. Mine has a 15mm intake fan and a 25mm exhaust fan. Here are some of the options -
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... smartpower

I would substitute the panaflo M1-BX that I used with an M1A

Plus you should also search for posts on psu ducts.

I dunno. My last 80mm fan PSU was a Zalman 400W and it was surprisingly quiet, but a good 120mm fan exhausting heat still seems like the champ.

I modded my Enermax Liberty 400W to use a Nexus 120mm fan (stock was 800-2400rpm) and now my system starts with the 120mm fan off until it hits 30C (my guess 7V), then spins up to 300rpm low, then 600rpm medium, and up to 840rpm full load. That's with an NT06 passive cooler pushing heat up into it. CPU temp is anywhere from 35C idle to 42C load.
CPU is AMD +3200
Case heat is 7900GT with VF-900 and Samsung 7200 rpm HD which is impacted most by ambient room heat.

Antec should have focused more on modular cables, kept the 120mm fan, done more with fan controller via temps, and painted it to look nicer.
80mm above 5V is just loud.

Would a 120 below to a rear 80mm booster (only one when needed, 5V at most) have worked better?

Frankgehry is right (again!), about the intake fan on the SPII PSU, It is only 1,5 cm deep.

I swaped it for a papst fan 2,5 cm deep mounted on the outside of the PSU.
The swap improved the noise level of my HTPC setup. But I can stil hear my PC.
The CPU-cooler a Zalman 7700 is now, by far, the loudest component in my setup.

The new fan btw is a papst type 8412NLGE 12v 0,45W.

Happy silencing, guys... (and girls of course)

Thanks lads and ladies for the quick responses.
I haven't got access to web on w/ends so I went ahead and modified the psu before I had seen your replies. Your right about the intake fan. It’s a ‘x-fan’ 80 x 15mm. I installed a AcoustiFan AFDP - 8025B close enough to pic in the link above, exept I used the original screws.
It’s just about halved the noise coming from my pc.
I think I’ve got the bug.
Chipset fan (Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9)is next
Thanks Again.